The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1887-05-21

SElIN tue Intervening twenty
TE35 six years.
rMSW AT Point Of Rocks
NV 3 and at Berlin, villages
six miles apart, the rows Of stone
piers stand perfect but disconnected, at
the present writing, with the causcways
grown over by grass, and the beautiful
Loudoun county Of Virginia is, in effect
and intercourse, removed from the popu-
loas county OF Frederick in Maryland
and the railway upon the Maryland
shore, by inconvenience and time equal
10 twenty miles. .3ss
Ferry scows are still maintained, mo
better than existed 100 years ago, and
seeming by that interval to separate
both shores from the present busy day.
II may have been this carrying Of his
mindbacktothe eighteenth centurywhich
caused f'olfe Stillson, the fcrryman's
assistant, to lie awake one October night
on the old Virginia pier, whittier he had
gone to be ready for the. early morning
passengers, and say aloud to himself n
81 reckon thar amt wild varmint left
now in neither county with powder and
shot. I've seen the beavers yer about
Goose creek, and sot traps for the wolf
md the bar. Pears like the country's
more lonesome than ever, bccaze the
people amt much thicker; and they can't
git NJ each other MS they used to do,
when thar amt no bridge" Is M
Rolfc was an old WAGNER, armorer,
canal lock keeper, lime burner, hod car;
rier-wha,evcr would give his family
coffee and ilour-and, he had lived out
more than sixty years In these regions,
since he was born at Harpers Ferry
in The palmy days when the American
flag ran to the masthead every morning
and was saluted by a chorus of small and
mighty hammers making muskcts for the
conquest Of the world. e ssj5,
Rolfe could not read, but he had no
modcsty on that account, while he could
listen and learn, and his head was full of
what the professors would now call nfolk-
lore" meaning, probably, poor folks
special sense-the sense for, nature tine,
iured by untroubling superstition.
Wise men do not believe in ghosts, yet
fly from them. Rolfe believed in ghosts,
but thought they were his friends. "
lie hal never seen any evil done by.
animals like the scenes in the great civil
war-of friends riding ut full gallop
through the country. towns: with ;rcins
loose and pistols in both hands /; Of human
bodies bursting in the roadways under the
hot sunshine, and robbers. hiding at the
springs to harm the mountain girls. ssys
Wearing mn old castaway cloth cap, m
officers blue coat, patched in other colors,
high boots, solcd and solcd again, and n
WOODEN shirt, stamped with the names of
the Union candidates In some forgotten
campaign, Rolfe bore us careless heart
ut sixly.fonr as any boy, and showed n
profile TO be envicd by any actor. III
Ills chin and nose had something Of
the mastilf and the eagle together; his
eyes were as clear in his profile as his
fine, unculturcd forehead. lie stood
straight as If he had been In the regular!
army and he had never struck man in
his life. KS X s a.. &! 81
The highest notch of his ambition was
to get some tobacco for his old pipe ].
was golden lunch with him to find n
steady job of work at fifty cents a day.
lie could smoke his pipe, and carry the,
hOd TO tho stoneInasons twelve hours in
twcnty-four and then dance a hundred
steps Of n jig for tobacco enough3to
smoke going home.
Middlc.agcd men called him daddy
the boys called him Rolfe, }}
|, was long after midnight when Rolfe
fastened his scow, I. 10 the Mbank and
stretched himself upon the bridge abut-{
mcnt under the bright stars and in the
soothing sound Of the cddics and rifles
OF the river beneath. n y: y
lie saw as he turned from side to side
the raync or slide on tho Virginia shore,
down which wound the ferry road from
lonely upland of woods and fields sand
on the opposite shore, (Which he, could
sight" above the lines Of standing piers,
were the little canal town near: the rail-
road tunnels and the parallel mountain
lines which seemed the cyclopean fortiti-
Gallons Of the high Catoctin valley,
riding through the moon-hrcd machine
mes and canvas-seeming sails OF the nav
lsalor clouds, ~ Il p 81. K.
Nobody kcers for ole Daddy Stillson,"'E
exclaimed Rolfe, 4""not even the water
6 suckers that suns themselves up YET, by
Jay, nor tho !, offers and lweasels that,
maybe, COMES up yer to watch for the !
suckers and black bass. Nobody kin run
eyer me with wagon, fur nobody uses
Inc bridge. ] reckon, they left this bridge
Sa "a II yer for my sarcufry .cuss. 10!
!, tic Ind hardly. chuckIcd to himself at
MS satisfaction with such luxury, when
m s, came n scraping sound up the
stones Of the pier. n s35i
ANS well I! said d voice. S55 :, - 4
,:Als we'll y said a voice nearer ,by.s
A., aolte slowly turned his head this way
a aaa That and saw two beavers standing.
Upright with a stick held like q musket
o M lAe!r short arms and pacing toward
each other by little jumps, then meeting